Dog's Nose

Dog's Nose is a popular song when marching, as it varies in contents, can go on for laong periods of time, and may incur punishment to one who disrupts its order.

Known primarily as a bandit song, even some more organized affiliated militant groups have been known to break it out when high command is not around.

The song is started with someone, anyone, singing "I'm free / as free as the wind blows" and from there, the an additional participating member (usually the next in column, if sun during a forced march) will sing a refrain that goes "as free as (a/the) _____ _____" where the last two words that are monosyllabic, with the last word ending in a rhyme with "blows". Depending on leniency, two syllable words are often allowed in a more lenient singing, though two two syllable words is considered unfavorable. Rhyming end words may not be repeated, and constitutes a foul. The sing goes on this way, and may end at anytime; the one intending to end the song must sing in rhythm "as free as 'a dog's nose", and the next to sing must notice and end in finality by adding "and I may go up any butt", usually with an uplilting tone. This completes the song.

Adding content that makes sense is preferred, mostly any two words will do. Utterances and words unknown to the common vernacular are considered a "foul" and that person is "out" and may be punished. Taking to long to fill the space may also result in punishment from surrounding members. Saying the same rhyming end word twice is a punishment, and the song continues. Half-rhymes are punished. Attempting to end the song by singing "as free as a the dog's nose" too early could result in punishment, and the song will thus continue. If a member starts the ending, and "as free as a dog's nose" ends with anything except "and I may go up any butt", the one not to notice will be punished; commonly the one making this mistake is punished most harshly of all if a reasonable end has been reached by common unspoken consensus.